Mission: To build the Best Bang For Your Buck (BBFYB) system that can play next-gen games, such as Unreal 3, do video production, music production, office work, as well as everything else... Im using this future computer for everything!

Note: This is a college computer system btw....

Budget: $1000 (preferbly below)

Things I already have (I dont need to buy) - DVD Burner

Things Im waiting on - Better priced next-gen graphics

Must Have List: 64-Bit Dual Core, dirt-cheap pci-express graphics card (Ill use it as fodder and wait for the next gen WGF 2.0 cards, 1 gig RAM, The best bang for your buck performance harddrive (I dont care how small it is), Possibly Gigabit, and finally a pretty good integrated audio solution (ex Azalia)...

Bottom Line: Must be able reach or even beat Windows Vista recommended specs!!

Thanks guys in advance, this is possibly my first PC build... (BTW Do you think I should get it pre-built from sites like iBuypower.com or Dell)?

Problem being is after the X2 (OEM to get the fan and warranty), you will only have $450 to work with for the rest of the system. So get a non SLI 939 MB ~$100 + PCIe-x16 vid ~$150 + 1G Ram ~$80 + large SATA $100 and you should be very close. Of course you still need power supply and case.

liquidsquid wrote:Problem being is after the X2 (OEM to get the fan and warranty), you will only have $450 to work with for the rest of the system. So get a non SLI 939 MB ~$100 + PCIe-x16 vid ~$150 + 1G Ram ~$80 + large SATA $100 and you should be very close. Of course you still need power supply and case.

-LS

Im currently waiting on the lowered priced X-2's like the 3800+, ALSO currently I want the cheapest PCIe-16 graphics card available, so I dont need to pay so high for the graphics card - I'll use this temporarily until Longhorn comes out and the WGF 2.0 graphics card come out....

NeRve wrote:Bottom Line: Must be able reach or even beat Windows Vista recommended specs!!

This is not quite possible. Hardware requirements for Vista are not final yet. And you never did say you want low-end, Aero or Aero Glass specs.

Also, Microsoft has a habit of understating even their recommended specs. To run it "smooth" you usually need more.

If you were to ask me I would have to say by mid-2007 (and that is provided that Vista will be on time for late Q4 2006), you will know the "recommended" specs. And by then:
- AMD will be on M2 socket with DDR2 at a minimum, possibly a new socket with DDR3 if things progessed good
- 3 grahics card generations have already passed and the previous gen will not run the latest games by then
And then all these predictions will be completely thrown off if there were delays and stuff. So your guess is actually as good as mine.

Futureproofing has died at least 5 years ago. It's not quite possible to do it. A better approach is to figure out what really you want to do with your computer now, and go from there. By the time Vista comes out, you may just want to have a working computer and play games on XBox 360/PS3 anyway.

I am sorry I feel like doing a mattsteg and call that Vista requirement ludicrous.

May be we should also subtract the prices for the games to make the number look better?

Seriously, even the Dell deal will not guarantee you can run full Aero Glass. Most likely Cedar Mill (the 65nm version of current Smithfields) will require a new socket. You are pretty much screwed anyways.

Edit: I meant new chipset, not socket. In any case we are talking about a new MB.

That's around $1200, without WindowsXP. Add $250 for a good 3D graphics card.

That looks great JustAnEngineer, the integrated graphics is a pretty good idea - however, I want motherboards with PCI-Express X1 slots for the rest of the expansion slots instead of standard PCI slots for the board... Which is one like that configuration, minus the DVD-Writer (I already have one).... I would also like to have Gigabit capability on the mobos... And how does that Western Digital drive compared to the drives with NCQ?

That looks great JustAnEngineer, the integrated graphics is a pretty good idea - however, I want motherboards with PCI-Express X1 slots for the rest of the expansion slots instead of standard PCI slots for the board..

Personally, with things like less expensive X2-64's (Hey and don't forget about Morom/Pentium 5?) R520, the Geforce 7800GT (7600 series could also be nice) and even minor things like Creative X-Fi sound cards on the horizon, I do not think it is the time to be building a Bang For The Buck machine...
But thats just my position....

[1] I'm not impressed with it or anything, but for $125, it's a steal.
[2] This uses the same Envy24 chip as the M-Audio Revolution, and a DAC with a signal-noise ratio only 2db worse, for something like a quarter of the price. The trick is the the good DAC is on the 7-8th channels, but the drivers let you route the front ones through it instead.
[3] Or just get some random beige case if you don't care.

Work is punishment for failing to procrastinate effectively.
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NeRve wrote:dirt-cheap pci-express graphics card (Ill use it as fodder and wait for the next gen WGF 2.0 cards

Ok, one comment on that. "next-gen WGF 2.0 cards" and "dirt-cheap pci-express graphics cards" serve extremely different markets. It's not a matter of limping along, it's a matter of hardware that simply won't do what you want it to do. If you want to game at all, get a card that's at least minimally competent. If you don't care to game, WGF 2.0 isn't really going to matter a whole lot anyway. Get at least a midrange card, and don't worry about the requirements of an OS that's not due out for a long time. Just buy stuff that does what you need now as well as possible within your budget and you'll be set.